Next Chapter
by wickeddioguardi
Summary: Natasha and Declan reflect on their relationship
1. Natasha

If anyone had told her eighteen months ago she'd be getting married again she would have laughed. Yet here she was, the morning of her wedding, watching as everyone around her rushed from one place to another setting everything up. When mark had left she swore she would never let another man in to her life. She'd kept to that for a while, focusing her attention instead on her children, that was until she'd met him. He was so charismatic and she'd instantly felt herself being drawn to him. He'd arrived in her hour of need, rescuing her from financial ruin and helping her to save the business. They'd had a laugh along the way and he'd somehow managed to make her smile again, something at the time she had found increasingly difficult to do. The past year hadn't exactly been plain sailing however, and there had been more than one occasion when she thought they were done for good but somehow they had always managed to work things out. The biggest problem they'd faced was Nathan; her oldest had had a problem with them from the start. It had been so bad at the beginning they'd been forced to hide their relationship as a way of keeping the peace. She had always imagined Will would have been the one to have a problem with her moving on, after all he still believed his father was coming back, but he'd been surprisingly relaxed about the whole situation. She suspected Maisie had had a large hand to play in that however, one of the many things she would always be grateful to her for. Her daughter had been supportive of the relationship from the start; it had been through her encouragement that they had even started seeing each other in the first place. She'd even attempted to persuade Nathan to be happy about it without much luck. Although unlike her, who had accepted Nathan would never accept Declan in their lives, Maisie still believed he would see sense eventually.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed by the mayhem currently overrunning the lower half of her house she quietly slipped away upstairs. Entering her room she was immediately drawn to the wedding dress hanging on the front of her wardrobe. She wasn't sure about doing the big wedding again. Although this was technically her first legal wedding, in reality she had already done this twice. She had to admit none of her previous weddings had been on the scale this one seemed to be heading, the whole thing had taken on a life of its own, helped in a large part by Maisie's involvement. As happy and excited as she currently was however, she was terrified something would happen to destroy it all, that all this effort would be for nothing, just like the first time round had proved to be. She'd made Declan jump through so many hoops to get to this point and she knew he would never intentionally hurt her but she was still scared. She was pulled from her thoughts by a soft knock on the door.

'You need any help?' Maisie peered round the door, a huge grin plastered all over her face. She was so relieved to see her daughter happy again; when Mark had initially left she'd been unable to do anything but watch as her daughter lost control. Looking at her now she was like a completely different girl from then, the happy free spirited Maisie she was used to had returned with an added maturity she had developed as a result of her experience. It had been Maisie's ability to move on with her life and look forward that had convinced her she needed to do the same, not just for herself but for her children. She would never completely forget Mark or what he had done, he'd been a huge part of her life and had given her three beautiful children but she no longer felt he controlled her life anymore 'Um hello mum, anyone there?'

'Sorry darling I was miles away,' she watched as Maisie tried desperately to stifle a laugh 'What did you say again?'

'I just wondered if you needed a hand,'

'Um actually could you help me get this on,' she gestured towards the dress

'Sure no problem,'

XOXO

'You look beautiful Mum,' she jumped slightly as Maisie appeared behind her, hugging her slightly as she did 'So you ready to become Mrs Macey?'

Smiling at the thought she nodded her head, she was ready to finally move on and start the next chapter of her life, whatever that might entail. 'Definitely, let's go,'


	2. Declan

The Next Chapter – Chap 2 Declan P.O.V

He was nervous, he'd never actually gotten married before, he'd never felt the need. Somehow things were different this time, she was different. He'd never met anyone like her; she was fiercely independent to a fault sometimes. Although he guessed after the mess of her last relationship he could see why she was so guarded, he sometimes wished she would let him in completely. It had taken him forever to convince her to let him in at all, to make her realise not everyone was like her ex and most importantly that she could trust him. He'd loved watching her open up and discovering the women behind the guard; the warm, funny, loving one who would do anything for those she loved, one of the reasons he suspected she put up with so much from Nathan. In the past year or so he had blackmailed them both individually and then as a couple playing on her biggest fear, upsetting Will, he had constantly caused tension and upset among various members of the family over often the most trivial of things. No matter what he did though she still stood by him and gave him chance after chance all the time trying her best to get through to him and make him realise his behaviour wasn't the way to go about things, failing every time. He hated seeing her put herself through it, if it was up to him Nathan would be long gone but he knew he had to accept she needed to handle this her way and all he could do was support her and be there when he let her down again.

He hadn't meant to fall in love with her; at the beginning he had tried hard to fight it. They were business partners and with everything she'd been through he didn't want to complicate things anymore than they already were. That theory barely lasted a week, as he began to see the softer side to her, the vulnerable one his resolve had disintegrated until he finally just had to admit he'd fallen for her. Sneaking around like school kids had certainly made the first few weeks exciting but he had been glad when everything was out in the open and he could publically tell anyone who listened that she was his and he loved her. He had been terrified of Will's reaction, he knew how devastated he had been when his father left and that he had always carried the hope that he'd come back one day, even now every birthday he was still convinced he was coming home. He knew while Nathan's reaction was upsetting her she could just about cope with it, after all he was an adult and had his own life. If Will hated the idea however he stood no chance, it would have all been over before it had even really began. He'd been the butt of Jai and Nikhil jokes for weeks after making the mistake of asking them for their advice and showing how terrified he was of a ten year old boy, and while he could joke about it now at the time it hadn't helped in the slightest. In the end Will had been surprisingly fine with everything, showing a maturity his older brother could learn a thing or two from. He wasn't sure looking back what he'd been so worried about, Will was a fantastic kid and if he was honest he had a better relationship with him than he did his own kids, of course having Maisie in their corner had helped the situation immensely. He adored both Will and Maisie, Nathan still needed a lot of work but even he was beginning to realise that no matter what he did he wasn't going to scare him off.

As he looked in the mirror he still couldn't believe he was actually getting married, in a few hours she'd be his wife. He smiled at the thought. It had taken a lot to convince her it was worth getting married, he'd gone through every channel he could think off to assure her they would be legally married and that her past relationship shouldn't stand in their way. In doing so it had dawned on Maisie that this would effectively be her mother's first official wedding as well as his. Taking everything in her stride she had immediately set about planning the perfect day, well what she saw as the perfect day anyway. She'd had to be reigned in on occasion when she'd gone too over the top but all in all she'd done a good job and everything sounded amazing.

'Mate you ready?' Nikhil had been ready since about seven this morning and it was now nearly one. He'd been under strict instructions from Maisie to keep everything running smoothly and had taken his task very seriously indeed 'Mate come on we'll be late and Maisie will kill me if that happens,'

'Alright alright I'm ready,' taking one last look in the mirror he opened the door to be met with an extremely nervous looking Nikhil and an hysterical Jai 'Relax mate I'm the one that's supposed to be nervous not you,'

'Oh mate, he's just worried his girlfriends going to make his life hell,' glancing across he tried desperately not to laugh at the younger Sharma brother who was looking more worried by the second 'You sure you want to leave the bachelor days behind or should we sneak out the back door while we can?' Jai laughed as Nikhil turned an odd shade of green 'Relax bro I'm joking, so you ready?'

'Definitely, let's go,'


End file.
